But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive
and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17Then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Jesus does not bring dead bodies with Him, but living bodies. They are all alive because they never tasted death like those in the OT. Do you think the NT Covenant makes one dead, or one alive?
Explain why there cannot be physical bodies in heaven one minute, and then a second later they are allowed? That makes no sense.
When the OT redeemed left sheol in permanent incorruptible physical bodies, they never left those bodies. They were made alive in Christ as the firstfruits. They would have ascended to Paradise, as they are not still alive on earth somewhere.
Paul never wrote those who sleep in Christ rise from the earth. They rise from Paradise and are alive, and they come with Jesus. The only ones who rise from the earth are those alive. At the rapture, do those physically alive come out of graves on the earth? Why would those physically alive in heaven come out of graves in heaven? Why would there be graves in Paradise to come out of?
There is not a single verse that says souls without bodies come to earth to find a body. God's permanent incorruptible physical body is found in heaven, not on the earth. Lazarus and all the OT already had their physical resurrection, and that was the only time other than those beheaded in Revelation 20, when souls on earth receive a permanent incorruptible physical body after physical death. Those in Revelation 20:4 never enter heaven.
Since the Cross, the redemption of the body is at physical death. Adam's dead corruptible flesh is left on the earth and the union with death is dissolved. The union with life is immediate, because the second birth already guarantees eternal life, even physical life. The only reason Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life is because resurrection is immediate and sure, upon physical death.
To say the soul is without a physical body, is to declare that those in heaven are still in a state of death. When Paul uses the terms dead in Christ and those asleep, it does not mean their current status in Paradise. That is their relationship to those still physically on the earth. Paul would not contradict nor make void the teaching of Jesus already established.
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live."
If one is already alive, how can they die, or remain in death?
Paul uses the physical terms to say people do physically die. But Paul never intended to say the soul remained physically dead. That is a misunderstanding and wrong interpretation propagated by the church throughout time. Name one NT author, or early church father, prior to catholicism who taught souls were still subject to enter Abraham's bosom, and wait until a final resurrection? Or that all souls even the OT redeemed were still waiting in Abraham's bosom? We only have one text where Paul wrote that Jesus descended into sheol and led captivity captive. The other text is in 1 Corinthians 15, when Paul said there was an order to those made alive starting with Christ the firstfruits. Many today deny that the OT redeemed were those firstfruits.
Scripture is not totally void of a resurrection at the Cross, it is just not that explicit nor spelled out. So many still see souls as being in a state of death, even though Jesus taught otherwise. Those in Paradise have been serving God day and night in that heavenly temple since the first century. That is a physical attribute, not symbolic of naked souls walking around without a physical body. The tree of life is physical not symbolic. They would have physical bodies just as much as the tree of life is physical. The Cross did make the physical resurrection available. Not that souls had to keep waiting for 3,000 years to receive a physical body.
Many had already been waiting in Abraham's bosom for over 3,000 years, for the Cross to receive a physical resurrection. That was not extended for another 3,000 years.
